When Mark Emmert made his grandiose statement last month, when he stood up and showed everyone at Penn State and intercollegiate athletics who was boss, you just knew this day was coming.

As fate would have it, it’s worse than anything Mr. Big Stick could have imagined.

“This,” one BCS athletic director told me Monday, “is Pandora’s Box.”

And an ironic kick in the rear for the man who talked tough while his kingdom was crumbling around him. Guess what, Mr. Emmert?

You’re gonna need a bigger stick.

When he announced crippling sanctions against Penn State, when he stuck the governing body’s nose in a legal action, Emmert made it clear that he alone had been given power to ignore due process and NCAA bylaws to protect “the foundation of amateur sports.”

Meanwhile, in Chapel Hill, N.C., the entire university is complicit in a systemic charade of bogus, no-show classes for athletes; a scheme that—you’re gonna love this part—the NCAA missed while investigating North Carolina over the past two years.

Fortunately, the man with the Big Stick has the Raleigh News & Observer doing the heavy lifting, exposing the real threat to the foundation of intercollegiate athletic sports. Or as my athletic director friend said, “Pandora’s Box.”

Think about that: the athletic department and a department of academics conspiring to keep students eligible so they can play games. This isn’t high school, everyone. This is one of the most respected academic institutions in the world cheating to keep athletes eligible.

So while Mr. Big Stick thumped his chest about Penn State—before and after delivering the sanctions—we haven’t heard squat from him about what will become the worst infractions case in the history of college sports. And that was before the latest mind-numbing details released Monday by the News & Observer: the gross case of academic fraud could go back a decade—and include North Carolina’s legendary men’s basketball program.

This, Mr. Emmert, is the foundation of amateur sports. This, Mr. Emmert, is the one thing that can bring down the façade that is billions in television dollars on the backs of student-athletes. This, Mr. Emmert, is the very thing that can and will underscore the one dirty secret the NCAA has tried for decades to hide: college sports is a glorified minor leagues for professional sports.

This, Mr. Big Stick, is your Pandora’s Box.

Say what you want about the NFL being a thug league, at least it doesn’t purport itself as one thing while acting like another. It hires felons and drunks and wife beaters, and does it in the name of professionalism.

The NCAA uses felons and drunks and girlfriend beaters, and simply moves them around from school to school and upper division to lower division all in the name of “giving kids a second chance.”

But there’s no avoiding academic fraud; no escape from what it exposes and how it jeopardizes the lifeblood of a multi-billion dollar, tax-exempt industry. There’s no denying the reality that if this unthinkable case of academic fraud is happening at North Carolina, where else is it hiding?

It’s easy to get emotional about a pedophile, and make snap decisions in the name of children. It resonates with everyone and produces instant credibility—no matter how skewed the process.

What happens when Emmert has to make a real decision? What happens when the very existence of college sports comes into play and the general public isn’t as engaged as Joe Sixpack was with Penn State?